from facebook: opining about opinions

Washington Times headline, June 15, 2106: “Pastor who praised Orlando shooting: ‘In America, you’re no longer allowed to have an opinion’ ” This is rich. Roger Jimenez, the Baptist preacher in Sacramento who said, about the Orlando massacre in a gay nightclub, “that the tragedy is that more of them didn’t die,” now complains about […]

from facebook: no thanks

January-February 2016: Donald Trump expresses support for the so-called First Amendment Defense Act, which in fact essentially would legalize some forms of anti-gay discrimination in public accommodations, employment, and housing. February 18, 2016. Donald Trump: “I’ll overturn the shocking gay marriage decision – trust me” May 18, 2016: Donald Trump works with the anti-gay Heritage […]

from facebook: the low bar of “at least we’re not as bad as ISIS”

Via Buzzfeed: “But [Rubio] disagreed with concerns that a conservative political agenda to block LGBT protections in the United States emboldens attacks like the one at Pulse. ‘That is totally different than a terror attack,’ he said. ‘ISIS throws gay people off of buildings. That is removed from the debate about laws about marriage and […]

from facebook: #saytheirnames

Thank you to the Orlando Sentinel for committing to publish a story about each of these beautiful human beings whose lives were brutally and deliberately cut short in an abhorrent act of violence, inhumanity, and anti-gay hatred; thank you for helping us remember that these people are our friends, our siblings, our children… they are, […]

from facebook: more on hb2

I received a message from someone who supports the North Carolina legislation. I’m paraphrasing, but their position essentially is that it was Charlotte’s inclusion of language allowing transgender men and women to use the bathroom of the sex with which they identify rather than that assigned to them at birth that made the local policy […]

from facebook: hb2

Another day, another reason to be ashamed to be an American. The legislature of North Carolina held a rushed special session today in which it hurriedly passed a bill—which the governor already has signed—to prevent LGBT citizens of the state from being protected against discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations, or even where they can […]

from facebook: talk this way

Last week’s linguistic link was for my husband’s side of the family, but the one he pointed out to me today — A push to restore pride in the way Appalachians speak, Washington Post, July 13, 2015 — hits me where I live. Well, where I grew up, at any rate. And I’ll confess that […]

from facebook: ’til death—or constitutional amendment—do us part

So the particular brand of Christians who seem to dominate the public discourse on LGBT people and LGBT equality, like Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, who appears on the major networks on nearly a weekly basis; current and former government officials, and presidential candidates, like Ted Cruz and Rick Santorum; and high-ranking Catholic officials like […]

from facebook: public servant accommodations

I want to delve a little more into my strongly held belief that there should be no “accommodations” for public servants who want to opt out of serving some segment of the public due to a personal or “strongly held” religious belief. I’ve been asked, if the person can still get the service from someone […]

from facebook: the anti-gay ADF and its “majoritarian” hypocrisy

I think that the hypocrisy, inconsistency, and willful ignorance (of our form of government, of the Constitution, of the lived reality of gay people, of their own religious texts) of the anti-gay right bothers me more than the actual anti-gay beliefs themselves. It’s easy to understand, after all, how people can be taught to be […]